little queens
“ You don ’ t have basketball shoes ? We have basketball shoes .”
- Scott Levine , Little Queens coach on assisting players
In her second year with the program , enrollment reached 20 girls . The next year , it reached 50 . This past year , 70 girls signed up to be a part of Little Queens basketball .
Scott became a Clinton Little Queens coach of the sixth-grade girls , alongside the coaches of the rest of the teams , who bring to the table collegiate experience coaching and playing basketball .
One of Scott ’ s goals , beyond teaching the girls the important fundamentals of the sport , is to introduce the concepts of the high school team ’ s offenses to them , so by the time the girls have moved on to Clinton High School Head Coach Cathy Marx , they possess the developed skills and abilities she needs from them .
What Scott says he ’ s really introducing to the girls , though , is “ we ’ re all one .” The grades that are large enough to have two teams will become one team as a whole once they reach high school , so he wants them all to watch each other ’ s games , support one another and develop healthy relationships before then . This , in turn , brings the entire community together .
Scott ’ s sixth grade team has been doing especially well , winning several tournaments this past year . Scott loves to go up against tough competition , and of course they play to win , but if the team should lose and come away from it with nothing more than having slightly bettered their skills , he still considers that a win .
Scott runs high-intensity team practices for an hour and a half , twice a week at Eagle Heights Elementary School ’ s gymnasium throughout the duration of the season from October to January . He holds expectations of them to work hard , and the girls do . For that , when they do something well , Scott is their biggest cheerleader . He coaches with a blatant passion , and the girls feed off his excitement .
The Little Queens program is funded by six sponsors . It gains funds from the numerous tournaments they participate in as well . The third main source of the program ’ s funding comes from registration fees . These , however , are somewhat fluid . Compared to other sports programs with fees upwards of $ 400 , Christina offers three tiers to choose from in an attempt to make the program more accessible to everyone .
The Levines ' generosity extends beyond team fees , too .
“ You don ’ t have basketball shoes ?” Scott says . “ We have basketball shoes .”
Scott and Christina currently have no plans to leave the program , but Marx dreads the day they will . They ’ ve had such a massive impact on the program and have successfully built one of quality that ’ s organized and consistent . Additionally , they ’ re not just doing it for the money . In fact , the program is a non-profit .
Marx says the Levines are very humble , and Scott is wildly excited for the community and the future of the Little Queens . He ' s been telling everyone he sees to just wait for a few years from now until when those girls get to high school .
“ These two are revolutionary ,” Marx said . C
Summer 2022 Clinton Magazine 11